LWML Mite Challenge - July

LWML Mite Challenge - July
2025–2027 MISSION GRANT NO. 8
BUILDING A PLACE OF CARE
DAKOTA BOYS AND GIRLS RANCH | $60,000

Creating a Healing Space
The Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in Minot, North Dakota, serves children, ages 10–18, who experience severe psychiatric, emotional, behavioral, and/ or developmental challenges due to the trauma of abuse, neglect, addiction, violence, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking. With the money from this grant the Ranch will build and furnish the Reflection Room which will serve as a safe and calming environment to support the emotional, spiritual, and psychological well-being of the children and the staff. The doorway to Gospelcentered healing for a child begins with an environment that communicates love while consistently meeting their most basic needs for safety and shelter.

The Reflection Room will provide space within Zurcher Cottage, a psychiatric residential treatment facility on the Minot campus. Here the children and staff will have a place to pray, meditate, find solace, and spend time in thoughtful reflection. This all aligns with the Ranch’s commitment to trauma-informed care and holistic Christ-centered wellness for the children.

Since 1952, the Ranch has touched the lives of more than 43,000 at-risk children and their families. The staff meets the children where they are with their affliction with Christ-centered hope and healing. The children come from across the United States. The team of professionals combine best-in-class psychiatric care with best-in-class Christ-centered spiritual care, unlike any other organization in the nation.

The Zurcher Cottage is a state-of-the art facility designed with the most current knowledge of trauma-informed care, emerging brain research, and the experiences of the staff in mind. Without the intervention of the professional providers, teachers, and caregivers at the Ranch, these children often face futures of despair that only perpetuate the cycle of trauma. During their time at the Ranch, children learn to see the world differently, feel the love of God through those who care for them, and begin to look to the future with hope

But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14b). Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children (Psalm 90:16).

Mission Grant Story | Learn more at lwml.org/mission-grants